


kisses falling over me like stars.

by whisperedwords



Series: an idiot's guide to maybe-sorta-kinda falling in love with your fellow outcast superheroes [4]
Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: (i indulge in my 'let rick say fuck' crusade), F/M, Fluff, Love, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Multi, POV Rick, Polyamory, emotional distress, supportive gfs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25559053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedwords/pseuds/whisperedwords
Summary: Rick Tyler is angry.The girls help him not be.
Relationships: Beth Chapel/Yolanda Montez/Rick Tyler/Courtney Whitmore
Series: an idiot's guide to maybe-sorta-kinda falling in love with your fellow outcast superheroes [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819771
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	kisses falling over me like stars.

**Author's Note:**

> in honor of my perfect ot4 tag. i owe the universe some fluff, what can i say.

Being Hourman isn’t always the best outlet for Rick to channel his seemingly-uncontrollable rage. In fact, some days, Rick finds himself craving the presence of the hourglass around his neck so that he can indulge in the power and anger that come with it. When he wears his father’s creation, he _remembers_ why he has to be angry—he remembers what he set out to do when all this started.

_Revenge_.

That being said, lately, Rick has come to the realization that maybe…there are better feelings to feel that don’t linger on the boiling hot fury inside him all the time. (He’s got his girlfriends to thank for that.)

Yeah, the _girlfriends_ term is a little new for him, but they insist on it. Besides, who is he to deny them anything, really? Except winning an argument about superheroing, of course, because Rick knows what happens when he lets one of the girls win an argument. (Courtney’s last _sporadic after-battle picnic date on the roof of a very public building_ adventure is a shining example.)

Rick finds that he’s less inclined to be angry when he’s with them. Sure, when it’s just him and Yolanda alone, sometimes she eggs the anger on and they go at each other with all of their bottled-up _everything_ , but really, that doesn’t even happen that often. Beth is mellow and is good to keep him at his baseline—he thinks about her smiling face and the roaring drumbeat of his impulsiveness fades into a dull thud. Whoever he looks at next usually ends up silencing it completely. It’s a pretty efficient system for a hormonal teenager with a lot of fucked-up family problems.

Today, however, is different. Because his last Chemistry test came back with a less-than-stellar grade (and yeah, okay, he didn’t study, but what was he gonna do, skip out on preparing for the first Car Show of the season by spending his day inside with his _uncle_?) and Mr. Moore had pulled him aside after class to tell him how disappointed he’d been grading his work, and god _dammit_ —

It’s kind of how he’d ended up here, sprawled in Courtney’s big bed with Yolanda and Beth on either side of him. His head is in Court’s lap. She’s shaking her head at him, blonde curls bouncing—kind of angelic, the way they hit the light. _Huh_.

“You know what I’m saying, Rick?” Courtney’s voice filters back into his ears, and he blinks a little, no longer distracted by her beauty. _Uhh, no_. The hand she’s combing through his hair with stills, and she narrows her eyes like she knows exactly what he’d just admitted in his head.

“Looks like someone wasn’t listening,” Yolanda hums, poking him in the side gently. He yelps and arches away from her touch, where he thinks, for a moment, that Beth won’t do the exact same thing.

He’s wrong.

“Sorry, sorry,” he manages, wiggling safely to a no-poking distance before clapping both hands over his face. “It’s just—I’m fucking annoyed, that’s all.” Well, not _all_ , because the _do it for your dad_ voice in his head hasn’t shut up since he got the 62 back, but they don’t really need to hear him go on about that thing again. “I’m usually good at Chem, I don’t get why I did so _badly_ this time around—”

“Did you study?” Beth interrupts, scooting closer but holding up both hands to indicate that she will _not_ be poking him ruthlessly. _God dammit_. Does Rick lie to save his own ass from getting the talking-to that he _knows_ will come from the truth, or does he choose honesty and just try and kiss Beth before she gets on a roll? It’s a tough decision.

His hesitation in answering is what gives him away, though. Courtney snorts, giving his scalp one final (gentle) scratch before reaching under him and pushing him up from her lap, surprisingly strong for someone without an hourglass of her own. Yolanda shakes her head but has a small smile on her face. When he turns to look at Beth, she frowns.

He _hates_ when she frowns.

“Rick,” she starts, and he wonders if he’s still got a shot at shutting her up with a kiss to avoid the rest of it. He doesn’t, of course—Yolanda sidles up beside him so that she’s tucked against his right side, and Courtney is knee-to-knee with Beth so that he’d absolutely get stopped. God _dammit_. “You can’t just not study for a test and expect to do well!”

He sighs. “But—”

“No _but_ s, Rick, you know that.” Beth crosses her arms. (She’s really cute when she’s mad like this, though he’d never tell her that.) “I texted you about studying for that test last week!” He doesn’t respond. He knows he’s not going to win this. Yolanda rests her head on his shoulder but huffs.

“You gotta take care of yourself, Rick,” she mumbles. “Even when it means studying instead of working on your car.” Damn her for knowing. “You know we just worry about you.”

They do, and he’s grateful for them every day. But that doesn’t mean he wants to hear about how he fucked up right now, _especially_ from them. He loves them, he wants them to be proud of him, he doesn’t need to _hear_ this—

“Yeah,” he answers, not realizing how short he’d sounded until after the word has come out of his mouth. Yolanda is the one that reacts first (god _dammit_ ) as she unhooks herself from his side, the space where she’d been suddenly leaving Rick feeling cold. When he looks at her, he can read her like a book. Shit shit _shit_ —

“Rick.” Courtney is next, although unlike Yolanda, she’s got this deeply-seeded need to solve everyone’s problems and scoots towards him. She’s so earnest it kills him. “You _know_ we’re not trying to be jerks about this. But just because we’re superheroes, doesn’t mean we’re allowed to give up our normal, secret-identity lives to do what we do.” She reaches out to take his hand, but he moves it away. Court frowns. “What’s—is this really upsetting you?”

_No_ , he wants to shout just to get them to move on from this. _No it’s fine just stop talking and we’ll be good, maybe I’ll leave and go punch a fucking tree or something_. But he can’t—he can’t do that. Not with them. There’s something about his girls that makes him vulnerable. He hates it. He hates the fact that tears well in his eyes a little as he contemplates what his answer to Courtney’s question means. He just wants to lie and not let them in, especially not when it’s something this stupid—

“Rick?” He’s tired of them saying his name like this, like he’s someone whose feelings actually matter. He’s tired of the whiplash of this and then home, where his uncle berates him until he’s purple in the face and then slams every door when Rick tries to say something back. He’s tired of loving girls whose hearts are so big that he could curl up in each of them and not even take up space.

(He’s not tired of that, really. He’s just dramatic.)

Rick takes a deep breath. “I just…hate that I’m letting down my dad’s memory.” The tears in his eyes threaten to spill over, but he wipes at them just to keep them from falling. “It’s stupid, it’s _stupid_ , I know I’m not really and that this was just an off day but like—”

He doesn’t even get to finish. Courtney flings herself across the bed at him and buries him in a hug, sinking her face into the crook of his neck and squeezing him tight. (She’s _really_ strong.) Beth swoops in not even a second later, and Yolanda rounds it out, all three of them nestled against Rick like their lives depend on it. There’s a chorus of murmuring, varying from his name to soft-spoken apologies to denying his statement, and he thinks he’s drowning in it, this flood of embarrassment and shame and affection that have crashed into him like a wave. He’s not even sure which one to listen to but the chorus of them together sounds like angels.

“I’m sorry,” he says to no one in particular. He can’t keep his voice from coming out hoarse. “It’s dumb.”

An “ _IT’S NOT DUMB_ ” comes at him from three sides, practically shouted, and he winces a little at how loud they are in shutting him up. (He loves them.) Beth pulls away from the hug first, but reaches out to rest her hand comfortingly on his arm. It works—it always works with Beth, she’s always been the one who calms him best.

“You’re not letting your dad down,” she says quietly. “He’d be proud of everything you’ve done so far, and of the way you’re balancing your whole new crazy life now.”

“Yeah,” Yolanda murmurs, arms still wrapped around him. “Cars or Chem, you’re making him proud.”

“You’re making _us_ proud,” Courtney finishes, sitting back on her heels and giving him her patented star-puppy look. It’s embarrassing, how immediately red his face gets when he sees that look. She’s so genuinely full-throttle it makes him weak in the knees in the most inexplicable way. “Yolanda was right that we worry about you, but that—” she leans in and presses a kiss to his cheek, and then his forehead, and then his nose, before finally settling on his lips, “—that doesn’t mean we’re not super proud of you, too.”

He exhales quietly. “Sorry,” he says again. Beth shushes him by pulling him close for another kiss. Yolanda follows her lead and pulls him back towards her once she’s done.

“Shut up,” she says, and he laughs quietly against her lips. He won’t argue with her there.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> please know that according to what im hearing out of the internet re: 1x11 (which i still havent seen as of posting this) i will most likely be writing an angstier courtney-centric version of this fic


End file.
